Fruit Crops.

The oranges are just coming ready. While the team of pruners was here during the last month pruning the kiwifruit vines they enjoyed helping themselves when they were in the block beside the orange trees. Lots fall off and get eaten by birds but there is still plenty for us and friends.

 I was inspecting the 4 little Blueberry plants . This biggest one has quite a few flowers so I hope we will get enough pickable berries from them.

This morning we have been doing GST/ Banklink, which is boring but pretty straightforward - it's a good programme to use.
Now I am off to water new plants and seeds.
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 I want to tell you what is happening with the kiwifruit in NZ but it is a complicated ( sad ) story so I will have to think hard how to describe it . If you like gold kiwifruit you better enjoy any you see because they won't be around for long.

 Last November a bacterial disease PSA  ( pseudomonas syringae pv actinidiae ) was found in gold kiwifruit plants near Te Puke, in the Bay of plenty. The disease had never been found in NZ before but had been in Italy wiping out many of their orchards. The disease has rapidly spread through vines near Te Puke; especially young vines and Gold vines. Some green vines have it to a lesser extent. ( 319 orchards  have been confirmed as having it to date. ) We are all nervously waiting for bud break to see how far it has spread.

This is a photo I took yesterday of a normal cane of female wood . The lump in the top middle is where the bud is going to break out from. So far on our orchard we can find no suspicion of any disease, so are holding our breath  ( so to speak. ) Only time will tell. ( all vines with the disease have to be quickly pulled out and destroyed - they will die anyway )
All sorts of hygiene efforts are being taken to try and halt the spread but it is wind born so will spread by itself.
 So not a good time to be a kiwifruit grower. It is the worst thing by far that has ever happened to the kiwifruit industry. ( worse than low prices, hail storms etc. )
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On a brighter note tomorrow I am going with 3 other friends to the Craft & Quilt Fair in Hamilton. I'm very much looking forward to it as I didn't go last year. So lots of quilty photos will appear here soon.